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Head gasket a little "wet"?

Joined
May 24, 2020
Member Number
1298
Messages
492
Loc
OC, CA
Motor is a Ford 400/6.6. Remanufactured from SandJEngines.com. probably has less than 2000 miles on it and did the cam break-in right.

Driver's head has a bit of moisture at the gasket area. Perfectly normal? Retorque the heads? Or do I need to just replace the head gaskets?

PXL_20210918_222631608.MP.jpg
 
Oil or coolant? Over heat? No milkshake?

I would re- torque and watch it.... never a good time for a hg to blow.
 
No chocolate milk or other signs of potential head-gasket failure, just this moisture or whatever that's been there for awhile. I'll re-torque like you said and keep an eye on it.

Is it just me or is that heat tab melted?
Checked it out this morning (didn't know what a heat tab was until I read this at 4:00am) and it's still good.

I have been having troubles with running hot only in "extreme" conditions involving 90-100 degree days and wheeling up steep hill climbs at slow speeds but I think I narrowed that all down to improperly set-up smog equipment/timing/etc. Never got over 230 though.
 
No chocolate milk or other signs of potential head-gasket failure, just this moisture or whatever that's been there for awhile. I'll re-torque like you said and keep an eye on it.


Checked it out this morning (didn't know what a heat tab was until I read this at 4:00am) and it's still good.

I have been having troubles with running hot only in "extreme" conditions involving 90-100 degree days and wheeling up steep hill climbs at slow speeds but I think I narrowed that all down to improperly set-up smog equipment/timing/etc. Never got over 230 though.
Just saw this response... sorry for the delay.

What t-stat is in it? If it's a 195, ya may want to roll it back to a 180* thermostat and see if it helps.
 
Just saw this response... sorry for the delay.

What t-stat is in it? If it's a 195, ya may want to roll it back to a 180* thermostat and see if it helps.
It has a 180 in it. After a lot of vacuum diagram reading, gathering ALL of the emissions equipment and testing all of it (testing new parts and finding DOA vacuum delay valves) I now understand what was happening with the running hot issue…

Running a Motorcraft 2150 designed for EGR means it needs a functioning EGR otherwise it will run lean, especially under any kind of load. I had the wrong EGR spacer gasket installed blocking off the EGR passage effectively disabling it (even though I passed smog which made me believe it was functioning).
 
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